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Corona Devo 3296

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I've been stopping to smell the roses lately...and   this is the gift of God. I haven't actually been stooping to smell real flowers, but instead I have been stopping long enough to enjoy and embrace the living-blooms within my life: family and friends. ...a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing...  ~Ecclesiastes 3:5 Let's embrace  with our amigos today. ~~~ I spent more than six hours on a recent Saturday cutting, coring, cooking, and canning tomatoes with my mother-in-law, and we both had the best time, because as we poured over the tomatoes, we were actually pouring into each other.  That each of them may... find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.  ~Ecclesiastes 3:13 ~~~ It is birthday season on both sides of our family, and as invitations populate to celebrate those that we love, I accept.   Not in obligatory response, but in awareness of the gift that family and friends (and time with them) truly is.   ( ...

Corona Devo 3295

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No longer.  No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him.  ~Revelation 22:3 No longer will there be a curse upon anything .  One day soon (for all of us that know the Lord) there wil l no longer be a curse .   The Lord brings to my heart the curse of cancer...the curse of depression...the curse of pain...the curse of sorrow...the curse of (physical and mental) handicaps...the curse of addiction...the curse of sin.... The world's curses can threaten ( even today ), to overtake us, but they will not overtake us because nothing can be claimed that has already been spoken for.  And the Lord Jesus Christ claimed us as His long before any of our "curses" arrived on our scene.  We will not be overcome because we have already been claimed.   We belong  to the Lord Jesus Christ, and no curse  of any kind has any claim over us.   For he chose us...

Corona Devo 3294

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Pop Quiz-Question today! How many seasons of the year are there? If we said "four" (Fall, Winter, Summer, Spring), then (for today's Quiz)--we would be wrong , because we forgot an important and delicious season. In my area of the world, country, state, and city...it's pumpkin season.  "Pumpkin season" technically falls within the "Fall" Season, but it is most definitely a season all it's own.  One can identify "pumpkin season" by the flavor of pumpkin invading every drink (hot/cold/coffee/tea/creamer), every confection (donuts/muffins/cakes/crisps/cookies/...and the famous pumpkin "roll"), and even savory food items such as ravioli and soup. Pumpkin season is known and experienced by  tasting it in so many ways.  When it is pumpkin season, the flavor of pumpkin (can) apply and be infused into just about everything, even Oreos ~~~ Can we be the "pumpkin-flavor" of the Christian faith?   Can we declare today the be...

Corona Devo 3293

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I was at a beautiful event on Friday, filled with followers of Christ, and one of the main focuses was encouraging families to choose Christian education over public education.  There were wonderful testimonies and encouragements supporting the benefits/the securities/the opportunities for furthering the Kingdom of Christ in choosing Christian education. And the very next day I attended a different event, filled with followers of Christ, and the main focus was equipping students to share and shine the Gospel in public schools.  There were wonderful testimonies and encouragements supporting the mission to go-and-make-disciples/the opportunities for salvation/and the call to furthering the Kingdom of Christ in choosing public education. Which is the correct decision for a family? That answer is: either .  (And homeschooling is an excellent educational-option as well, I just didn't attend an event focusing on the benefits of it this week.) Only the Lord knows what plans are ...

Corona Devo 3292

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Before opening the Bible, I scribbled a desperate prayer in my journal, snapshotting my heart: Lord--we NEED You.  We are walking through the fire. My fire isn't your fire, but we all walk through them at one time or another. Are we walking through the fire today? The flames of persecution may be licking at our heels, or perhaps the heat of pain or sorrow surround us.   Are we walking through fires of emotional trauma?  Or is it a fire of physical flames that laps at our peace and faith-foundation?  Or perhaps it is  people  that are causing our world to burn down around us. Lord--we NEED You.  We are walking through the fire. It's a lonely place (isn't it?)... being inside the fire.  It's as if you can't see anyone else, or even remember anything else.  All we know in the burden of the fire is  the suffocating nature of it surrounding us.   Lord--we NEED You.  We are walking through the fire. But this is why we open...

Corona Devo 3291

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Sometimes God takes us on a deep dive into a single verse or two in the Bible.  And sometimes, the Lord says, "Let's review quite a few." That's today. And sometimes we need to review God's Word. Life happens.  Years move.  Decades can pass, and we can assimilate into our routine, and our opinions, and our schedules, and our comfort zones...and we can forget  the basics of what God has said about how to live our lives for Him. Let's remember today.   Let's get back to God's basics today.  Let's be reminded of God's gold standards for life.  Let's be refreshed in God's truth.   Let's be reestablished in how God says to live our lives for Him because: that's what we're here for . ~~~ God delivered His guidelines for godly-living to the Israelites one day a couple thousand years ago when they were gathered at the base of Mount Sinai (also known as Mount Horeb). Their hearts were repentant and expectant for the Lord. Moses trav...